Ryan Babel last night revealed how reading The Bible has helped him cope with his move to Liverpool.

The Dutch winger, a £11.5million summer buy from Ajax, admitted his strong faith has played a major role in him settling on Merseyside.

Babel said: “The Bible has been my source of inspiration in Liverpool. I read it every day before I go to sleep.

“It makes everything easier. I am alone in England but, in reality, that’s not the case — the Lord is with me all the time.

“I haven’t yet been able to find a church in Liverpool that I’ll go to regularly. There are some things in English that I can’t yet understand, whereas I knew better what they were saying when I went to church in Holland — and that is important.

“I had a religious upbringing and, as I got older, I realised I still had a lot of questions — about life, God and why things happened the way they did.

“I thought about it a lot and looked for answers and God helped me. He showed me the way.”